The present invention generally relates to battery packs and housings. More particularly, the present invention relates to an improved construction of a battery housing that allows placement of batteries and a flexible circuit within a battery tray, then spot-welding of the circuit to the batteries, and then the snap-fitting of a cover upon the battery tray to create the battery housing.
Battery packs and packages are used provide electricity to devices, such as cellular telephones and other portable electronic devices. The battery packs are created from a rigid or semi-rigid battery housing that contains one or more batteries and often a flexible circuit that provides some memory and data communication ability to the battery pack. The battery housing is comprised of one or more rigid or semi-rigid pieces that encapsulate the batteries and flexible circuit(s), if present.
The common method of assembly of a battery pack is to first weld the batteries and flexible circuit(s) together and then placed the structure into a battery tray or other component designed to fit the welded structure. Then a cover, or other component, is rigidly fitted to the battery tray or battery-holding component to form the battery housing. The battery housing is often wrapped or has other modifications performed upon it to create the finished battery pack that is ready for its intended use. However, such method of manufacture creates several problems.
First, the separate step of welding the batteries and flexible circuit(s) requires a further inefficient step of placing the welded structure into the battery tray or battery-holding component, which lengthens the manufacturing process. Second, the welding of the structure outside of the battery-holding component requires a significant tolerance between the welded structure and battery-holding component to ensure that the structure will fit. If the welded structure is too large, the physical placement of the welded battery-flexible circuit structure into the battery-holding component can cause damage to the welded structure. Or, if the welded structure is much smaller than the battery-holding component, the welded structure will not be properly held within the fully assembled battery housing.
Accordingly, it would be advantageous to provide a battery housing that permits the placement of the one or more batteries and flexible circuit into the partially assembled housing and then spot-welding of the circuit to the batteries so that they are held in their preferred arrangement when the battery housing is fully assembled. The present invention is therefore directed to the provision of an improved battery housing that permits spot-welding of a flexible circuit to one or more batteries while the batteries are held within the partially assembled battery housing.